Today is the day that our antenna system was attached to the house..

That all looks great. You are a serious player, for sure. Keep building.

Thanks Carl 🙂

This was way more work than I thought it would be LOL.
However I think once everything is up and running it will work great.
Let's hope anyway 🙂

tonight I fired up the talking house sent to me by MRAM.
Thanks Bob 🙂

At 10:00 PM PST using a test signal with Rick Derringers Walking the Dog.
@ 1.3 miles it has a solid signal . Some noise at that distance but still pretty good on my Toyota's radio.

at 3/4 mile to 1 mile it sounds solid and with very little noise.

More updates coming tomorrow.

Seems you have great coverage. What are you using for your ground? Is that one of those cast iron stink pipes you mounted the ATU on?

Yea it's on the poop vent 🙂
I have a ground Rod of 8' I pounded into the ground and ran the 12 gauge copper wire to the weather Mast , Then from the weather mast down to the Rod.

So far it seems to be working better than I thought it would.
We will see if I get a boost during the daylight hours.

"Sir that system as installed appears to not be functionally compliant with part 15.219" LOL 😉

"Sir that system as installed appears to not be functionally compliant with part 15.219"

The poop vent or the transmitter? 😉

RFB

Heh the poop vent is not part 15 legal ?

Never the less , todays test went like this .

with the antenna grounded
1.5 miles with a solid signal , at any farther there was a lot of noise .

With no ground , 3/4 of a mile and a very solid signal , However at 1 Mile it was pretty good with little noise , And any farther than that I don't think auto sync on my radio would find it..

This is great news Lefty. I've been very anxious to see how the NEW ATU would perform.

Interesting the difference connecting a separate ground makes as the coax shield is considered by some to be a radiating ground of itself.

Lefty Gomez wrote: With the antenna grounded 1.5 miles with a solid signal, at any farther there was a lot of noise. With no ground, 3/4 of a mile and a very solid signal. However at 1 Mile it was pretty good with little noise.

Then this post by MRAM1500: Interesting the difference connecting a separate ground makes as the coax shield is considered by some to be a radiating ground of itself.

Assuming that the antenna system tuning was optimized for both of the configurations in Lefty's clip above, this would prove that radiation efficiency is higher for the system using an r-f ground connection directly from the ATU than one using a path via the coax shield + transmitter hardware + a-c power line ground.

So my suggestion would be to install an inline lightning protector just prior to the coax entering the structure. At that point a ground connection to the coax is made.

This would provide better protection for the transmitter while eliminating the "extra" ground. My feeling is the range would be close if not the same as using the separate ground. Why? Because the coax shield is connected to the same electrical point in the ATU as the grounding terminal of the ATU.

I know no one will believe this but I know an individual using the Talking House with roof mounted ATU with a separate ground. The FCC veiwed the installation and found no problem with it.

Since lately I have learned about and begun experimenting with an artificial ground method that works indoors when no earth ground is nearby, I all at once envision using this artificial ground method as an elegant means of making a long ground lead legal.

For this discussion, I am departing from the iAM/Talking House/ATU and thinking about any other high mounted AM part 15 transmitter.

1. 10-foot vertical up high on a pole or building with loading coil and transmitter;

2. ground lead vertically straight down to the earth grounding rod and radials;

So far I've described a system that would be expected to fail an inspection. But here is the new idea...

3. a horizontal dipole, its center point attached at transmitter ground at the top of the vertical ground wire. To hold the artificial ground dipole in its horizontal position, you would mount poles or towers at both ends.

The effect of this self-neutralizing dipole would be to cancel the RF that otherwise would have traveled down the ground wire.

It works perfectly in my mind.

3. a horizontal dipole, its center point attached at transmitter ground at the top of the vertical ground wire. To hold the artificial ground dipole in its horizontal position, you would mount poles or towers at both ends. The effect of this self-neutralizing dipole would be to cancel the RF that otherwise would have traveled down the ground wire. It works perfectly in my mind.

Those who believe such to be true might want to install and accurately measure the performance of such a system before subscribing to it.

How would the two horizontal dipoles cancel out the return path RF being emitted by the longer ground lead, which is longer than the 10 foot vertical, and the two horizontal canceling dipoles?

Think the horizontal elements intended to cancel out, which they may in of themselves, but chances are those two elements will act like a cap hat to the long ground connection which is radiating.

JMT.

RFB